Let me start by saying I am completely new to Linux and to knoppmyth. I've spent the past two days researching everything and tryign to understand everything I possibly can. After a four or five hour install ordeal (problem was with second hard drive so i disconnected it for now), i finally got knoppmyth to install. I was happy to say the least. But then came the real task: getting mythtv to work.

I set up MythTV, but wasn't very suprised to see the live TV function did not work at all (it goes to a black screen for about 15 seconds then returns to the menu). The program guide didn't set up correctly either for whatever reason (I have an account with zap2it that is recognized, but the program guide never setup properly).

The menu interface runs very sporatically- usually it is fine, however other times it will freeze for 30 second intervals or so before it recovers.
When I try to play a DVD the computer freezes for about 3 minutes.

I am running on the following platform: 2.2GHz AMD Athlon XP 3000+, 512MB RAM, 160GB Hard Drive. nVidia GeForceFX 5700 VE (256DDR), hauppauge 250 tuner.

From what I understand this should be plenty powerful for the usage.

Next Problem:
When I try to rip the DVD it acts as though it is working at first and it will go to the screen w/ the 2 progress bars, but then after a few seconds it flashes to the screen that reads"No jobs and nothing else to do. You ucould hit 0 to rip a DVD."

The only thing i've gotten working at all is playing a CD.

Right now I am confused and getting very tired of not getting anywhere. I'm sure many of the problems are due to my inexperience with linux in general (I sitll haven't been able to figure out how to download programs or drivers using the interface...it's just a concept i haven't grasped yet- any tips would help a lot).

I was hoping someone could help shed light on any of the forementioned topics, at this point ANYTHING helps a great deal. Thanks!

You have to get your program guide working and loaded with data before watching Live TV will work. You'll probably have to run mythtv-setup again to make sure you entered your Zap2It account correctly... then, did you run mythfilldatabase after running mythtv-setup as prompted?

Not sure about the menu freezes.

DVD playback of encrypted DVDs (i.e. store-bought movies) are not supported out-of-the-box due to DMCA restrictions in the US. You'll have to nose around to find out what your options are. The xine FAQ has some details.

Read up on "apt-get" to find out about installing things. As root, you "apt-get update" then "apt-get install" a program.

Thanks for the reply. I reinstalled and ran mythfilldatabase now and the program guide works, however the TV still goes to black and then back to the menu. Any other ideas?

Which frequency set did you select? If you run mythtv-setup, it's in the middle of the third page under "General". If you're on a US Cable system there are two different options you may have to try.

Oh, and if you haven't already done so, edit /etc/mythtv/modules/ivtv and comment out or remove the lines that say the tuner type detection has improved to the point that these are obsolete and deprecated.

BTW - I'm guessing that you're using R5A12 since you didn't provide that information...

sorry, yes i am using R5A12. When I input

vi /ect/mythtv/modules/ivtv

to comment it out the it reads "ivtv already locked, session is read-only' ivtv:unmodified, readonly: line one."

Also I found this page: http://knoppmythwiki.homelinux.org/index.php?page=TVCards, which suggests recompliling the ivtv driver, but yet again that doesn't work. When I get to the /usr/src directory and input tar xzf ivtv-0.1.10-pre2-ck105i.tgz it spits out

tar: ivtv-0.1.10-pre2-ck105i.tgz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

Any ideas? Thanks again.[/code]

My first bit of advice is to slow down and try to understand what's wrong before going off half cocked. Compiling and installing an old version ivtv driver is something to try only in very particular circumstances and you ain't there yet.

Step one - and I should have pointed you this way in my first message - check the logs. Read through /var/log/messages and find the chunk that starts with "START INIT IVTV" and ends with "END INIT IVTV" and post it here. We're looking for your tuner type among other things.

Step two - hunt down why that file is locked. Are you editting it twice? Are you looking at it with view (or more or less, or ...) while trying to edit it with vi? Are you logged in as root when you try to do this? if you are logged in as root and don't have the file open in another process I'd probably force it by making a copy, editting that, then moving the original aside and replacing it.

Actually try this as root...

If that works, reboot and collect the INIT IVTV block from messages as above.

Alright, thanks for the advice again. my /var/log/messages file reads:

Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ivtv: ==================== START INIT IVTV ====================
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ivtv: version 0.2.0 (rc3a) loading
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Linux version: 2.6.9-chw-4 SMP preempt 586 gcc-3.3
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ivtv: In case of problems please include the debug info
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ivtv: between the START INIT IVTV and END INIT IVTV lines when
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ivtv: mailing the ivtv-devel mailinglist.
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Autodetected WinTV PVR 250 card
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Found an iTVC16 based chip
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:08.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Unreasonably low latency timer, setting to 64 (was 32)
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ivtv: VIA PCI device: 0x3205 vendor: 0x1106
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: tuner: chip found at addr 0xc2 i2c-bus ivtv i2c driver #0
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: ivtv: i2c attach [client=(tuner unset),ok]
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: tuner: type set to 2 (Philips NTSC (FI1236,FM1236 and compatibles)) by insmod option
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: tuner: The type=<n> insmod option will go away soon.
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: tuner: Please use the tuner=<n> option provided by
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: tuner: tv aard core driver (bttv, saa7134, ...) instead.
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: msp34xx: ivtv version
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: msp34xx: init: chip=MSP3445G-B8, has NICAM support, simple (D) mode, simpler (G) no-thread mode
Apr 9 20:04:18 tyvo kernel: msp34xx: $Id$ compiled on: Feb 5 2005 20:42:28
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: ivtv: i2c attach [client=MSP3445G-B8,ok]
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: saa7115: starting probe for adapter ivtv i2c driver #0 (0x10005)
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: saa7115: detecting saa7115 client on address 0x42
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: saa7115: writing init values
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: ivtv: i2c attach [client=saa7115[0],ok]
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: saa7115: status: (1E) 0x48, (1F) 0xc0
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: tveeprom: Hauppauge: model = 32062, rev = C182, serial# = 7913630
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: tveeprom: tuner = LG TAPC H791F (idx = 82, type = 39)
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: tveeprom: tuner fmt = NTSC(M) (eeprom = 0x08, v4l2 = 0x00001000)
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: tveeprom: audio_processor = MSP3445 (type = 12)
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: ivtv: i2c attach [client=tveeprom[0],ok]
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Tuner Type 39, Tuner formats 0x00001000, Radio: yes, Model 0x008d1612, Revision 0x00000000
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: ivtv: NTSC tuner detected
Apr 9 20:04:19 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Radio detected
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Encoder revision: 0x02040011
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Configuring WinTV PVR 250 card with 5 streams
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Create DMA stream 0 using 256 16384 byte buffers 4194304 kbytes total
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, streamtype 0 minor 0
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Create DMA stream 1
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, streamtype 1 minor 32
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Create stream 2 using 40 52224 byte buffers 2097152 kbytes total
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, streamtype 2 minor 224
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Create DMA stream 3 using 455 4608 byte buffers 2097152 kbytes total
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, streamtype 3 minor 24
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Create stream 4
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, streamtype 4 minor 64
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Setting Tuner 39
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: tuner: type already set to 2, ignoring request for 39
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Setting audio matrix to input 3, output 1
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Switching standard to NTSC.
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: ivtv_enc_thread: pid = 2563, itv = 0xe0f46920
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: saa7115: decoder set norm NTSC
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: saa7115: set audio: 0x01
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: Initialized WinTV PVR 250, card #0
Apr 9 20:04:20 tyvo kernel: ivtv: ==================== END INIT IVTV ====================[/code]

If you're wondering why it took so long for the reply it's because i didn't know how to copy and paste javascript:emoticon(':oops:').

And I've just lost my cursor, so it might be difficult to finish writing this without seeing your response... wow. however, i have notice another significant problem, i have no /etc/mythtv/module/ivtv directory, it just doesn't exist. there are a number of other dirctories like ivtv0 and ivtv1 and i also saw ivtv.old as well, but no ivtv. Any ideas?? Thanks again for all everyone's help.

By the way i've gotten the dvd player working, and after i reinstalled the freezing hasn't been an issue. When i go to watchtv now it is still a black screen, except it flickers a little and says "1:Composite 0" in the upper left corner, but it no longer goes back to the menu. At least it's some progress...

OK, as I suspected. See this line:

And this line:

From your logs? That's the problem.

One of your config files is forcing the driver to tuner type 2 when the card has tuner type 39. You need to hunt down where thats happening and kill it. Try this to locate the problem file: If that doesn't turn up anything interesting try this: While we're at it do this too:

Yay, progress. when i do the search for the first suggested code it shows the following:



so when i go to the files to comment them out (that's what you were suggesting, right?) again i have the problem of them being read only. i know they are not being viewed in two places because i restarted the computer and started by doing this to make sure...i'm not sure why i can't edit it.

For whatever reason my browser will not work now, I just get the message: An error occurred while loading http://mysettopbox.tv/: Unknown host mysettopbox.tv, so I'm typing this blog from a different computer (so if you think you see a typo in the code, you probably do).

When I typed find/etc -name *ivtv* -ls it gives me a list of 15 entries. I'm just gonna type the ending of each because I assume that’s what we’re looking for.

Update: for whatever reason I can delete part of the entry, so I took out the lines



in both ivtv.old and ivtv.new (as you had earlier suggested for ivtv), but I still have the same problem when i go to watch tv-- black screen.

The old and new aren't getting used so the tuner type two is coming from somewhere else. Are you sure you doing this as root this is very important, if you don't understand what I'm talking about ask, don't just blow it off.

Let's go back to basics and start with this. Do the following and post the results:

BTW - The best way to do this is to ssh into your KnoppMyth box from the box where you're reading this so you can cut and paste. If all you have is a windows box get yourself a copy of putty or some other terminal program and use that to establish the session.

if you don't have a /etc/mythtv/modules/ivtv try /etc/mythtv/modules/ivtv0

My next guess is that the setting of tuner type 2 is coming from somewhere else like /etc/sysconfig/ivtv/cfg-0 but check ivtv0 first.

Ayeeee... the internet started working after a reboot, but it has stopped yet again. I've finally figure out a few more things though so once the internet is working i'll be able to paste the codes no problem.

I'm pretty sure i know what you mean by root- you just mean login as root by typing "su root" and then typing in the password. Is that right? That's what I've been doing all this time. Most of the times I think I figured out the problems with the files being locked, so I don't believe that's an issue now.

Once again, sorry I can't copy and paste, but when i type i get the following directories: bttv, bttv0, bttv1, bttv2, bttv3, ivtv.new, ivtv.old, ivtv0, ivtv1, ivtv2 and ivtv3.

When I try to read /etc/sysconfig/ivtv/cfg-0 it appears to send me directly to /etc/sysconfig/ivtv/Readme. It reads (keep in mind i'm transcribing still since i can't copy or telnet):



So, as a newbie, I'm guessing what this is saying is that unless the cfg-0 file has the IVTV_TUNER='0' line uncommented and changed to '39', then it will assume a default value of 0. I obviously could be wrong here, but should I uncomment that line in the cfg-0 file and change the 0 to a 39. Sorry if I'm way off.

By the way, the ivtv0 file only reads:

so i'm guessing that isn't messing anything up.

Thanks again for all of your help, I would be completely lost without your guidance .

You've really got to get your networking working reliably to have any chance with the rest...
'Kay you got that one covered. Just making sure. You'd be shocked at how badly some people follow directions, the whole "I don't understand that so i'll ignore it" thing or the "one donut buffer" problem.

Let's tak e a look at your ivtv.old and ivtv.new files. We'll probably rename one of them to ivtv. Mine looks like this:
Note that there are some extra line breaks in there due to the page limits. Do not copy this blindly! You're just going to compare it to what you have.
If either the old or new file looks like that copy it to /etc/mythtv/modules/ivtv, reboot and check your logs.

I'm also thinking that it's time to call for help. Cecil! Xsecrets! Liv2cod!... what am I missing? Where else could a bad setting of tuner type 2 be coming from when he's got a type 39?